Stable isotope analysis indicates microalgae as the predominant food source of fauna in a coastal forest stream, south-east Brazil

View/ Open
Author(s)
Brito, Ernesto Fuentes
Moulton, Timothy P
De Souza, Marcelo L
Bunn, Stuart E
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2006
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Stable isotope studies of food webs in floodplains, large rivers, mangroves, and seagrasses have shown that, although a large proportion of the biomass may come from higher plants, microalgae provide a disproportionate amount of carbon assimilated by metazoan consumers. Evidence is building that this may also be the case for streams, especially those in the tropics. At the level of individual consumer species we also see that the apparent diet may not be reflected in the carbon assimilated. Tropical streams commonly have omnivore-detritivore species that potentially show this phenomenon. We tested these concepts in four ...
View more >Stable isotope studies of food webs in floodplains, large rivers, mangroves, and seagrasses have shown that, although a large proportion of the biomass may come from higher plants, microalgae provide a disproportionate amount of carbon assimilated by metazoan consumers. Evidence is building that this may also be the case for streams, especially those in the tropics. At the level of individual consumer species we also see that the apparent diet may not be reflected in the carbon assimilated. Tropical streams commonly have omnivore-detritivore species that potentially show this phenomenon. We tested these concepts in four moderately shaded sites in a stream in well-preserved Atlantic rainforest at Ilha Grande, Rio de Janeiro. We sampled aquatic insects, shrimps and fish as well as potential terrestrial and aquatic primary food sources. Carbon stocks from terrestrial sources predominated over carbon of algal origin (>99% of total). The primary sources of carbon showed distinctly different isotopic signatures: terrestrial sources had d13C values close to -30鬠microalgae were -20頡nd macroalgae were -25鮠All fauna had d13C values consistent with a carbon source derived from microalgae. Baetid mayflies and atyid shrimps exert a strong grazing pressure on periphyton and organic sediments but appear to assimilate predominantly microalgae. The palaemonid shrimp Macrobrachium olfersi also ingests large amounts of detritus of terrestrial origin, but apparently assimilates animal prey with algal d13C signatures. These results support the growing view that tropical stream food chains are primarily algal based.
View less >
View more >Stable isotope studies of food webs in floodplains, large rivers, mangroves, and seagrasses have shown that, although a large proportion of the biomass may come from higher plants, microalgae provide a disproportionate amount of carbon assimilated by metazoan consumers. Evidence is building that this may also be the case for streams, especially those in the tropics. At the level of individual consumer species we also see that the apparent diet may not be reflected in the carbon assimilated. Tropical streams commonly have omnivore-detritivore species that potentially show this phenomenon. We tested these concepts in four moderately shaded sites in a stream in well-preserved Atlantic rainforest at Ilha Grande, Rio de Janeiro. We sampled aquatic insects, shrimps and fish as well as potential terrestrial and aquatic primary food sources. Carbon stocks from terrestrial sources predominated over carbon of algal origin (>99% of total). The primary sources of carbon showed distinctly different isotopic signatures: terrestrial sources had d13C values close to -30鬠microalgae were -20頡nd macroalgae were -25鮠All fauna had d13C values consistent with a carbon source derived from microalgae. Baetid mayflies and atyid shrimps exert a strong grazing pressure on periphyton and organic sediments but appear to assimilate predominantly microalgae. The palaemonid shrimp Macrobrachium olfersi also ingests large amounts of detritus of terrestrial origin, but apparently assimilates animal prey with algal d13C signatures. These results support the growing view that tropical stream food chains are primarily algal based.
View less >
Journal Title
Austral Ecology: a journal of ecology in the Southern Hemisphere
Volume
31
Issue
5
Publisher URI
Copyright Statement
Author Posting. Copyright 2006. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Austral Ecology, vol. 31, iss. 5, pp. 623-633. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2006.01610.x
Subject
Environmental sciences
Biological sciences
Ecology not elsewhere classified